FROM: ELLEMEN, ID: ELLEMEN_China.
Not long ago, "TGC teen 2023 Summer" was held at the Second Gymnasium of the Yoyogi Stadium in Tokyo.
The winner of the "High School Beauty Pageant 2023", which is "Japan's cutest high school girl", was selected, and Otowa (Setani), who was born in Chiba Prefecture, won the first place.
In fact, the Japanese are very keen on this aesthetic ranking, and every year many beautiful girls will appear on the rankings launched by major media and institutions in Japan, and Japanese netizens are constantly complaining under these rankings and beauty pageant results.
So why are Japanese people so obsessed with the beauty girl ranking?
Japanese beauty pageant,
Is it really aesthetically rebellious?
Everyone can have such a feeling, may be because of the past ten years of Japanese beauty pageants, aesthetics seem to be too rebellious, compared with the neighboring South Korea's "thousand people", Japanese beauty pageants seem to have already jumped out of our impression of beauty pageant aesthetic rules "nine-headed body" and "plastic surgery face"... The big difference in appearance is the deepest impression left on us by the Japanese beauty pageant.
Under some beauty pageant photos circulating on the Internet, especially in the comment column of Yahoo Japan, they are all "this is all passerby level", "not as good as the one in my class", and even pranksters have gone to the site of Miss Tokyo University, graffiti on the scene and wrote "the so-called beauty pageant is to correct the ugly woman's face".
Miss Japan 2020 was won by Yasuju Oda of Keio University, a prestigious Japanese school, and the 52nd generation Miss Japan could not escape the evaluation of "plain looking".
In fact, according to my feelings, it is not ugly, and it is probably a pot that looks bad. Change the makeup and style that are not so beautified, it seems that it is not as unbearable as netizens say.
You see that the pageants have been like this in recent years:
Miss Japan 2014 pageant
Miss Japan 2016 Pageant
Miss Japan 2017 pageant
Oda is not alone, and when these girls make the finalist list, what awaits them is the online violence of online keyboard warriors.
Li Lai, the winner of Miss Japan 2014, encountered poisonous tongues from netizens along the way: "Is there no one in Japan", "It's not ugly, it's already to the point of being unbearable to look at directly", "Frightened by her appearance", and even made her every move into an emoji, suspecting that winning the championship was a shady game.
The winner of the 2019 Miss Japan competition, the 21-year-old University of Tokyo student Yaiko was ridiculed for setting a new ugly high, with a crooked mouth and nose, and an old-fashioned appearance.
Change the shape, obviously it is a heartwarming little sister. The beauty contest uniform makeup and styling really pit people.
Takako Arai, the winner of Miss Japan 2012, was also ridiculed by the group for "passers-by's appearance" and "ordinary appearance". But she herself is the favorite "supermodel face" in the Japanese fashion industry and has shot many fashion blockbusters.
And the 2015 Miss Earth Japan champion also caused great discussion because of dental problems.
The age of great beauty
In fact, there is a gap in the hearts of the viewers, mainly remembering the era of the emergence of gods.
The most famous "Miss Japan", as the top beauty pageant contest in the Japanese beauty pageant industry, was held for the first time in 1950, adhering to the purpose of "aiming for the true beauty of Japanese women", and judging the overall quality.
This competition can build popularity because it has discovered many high-quality beauties, and some of the winners have even become dazzling memories of the era.
The first Miss Japan Yamamoto Fujiko was called "the beauty of the world", her name was synonymous with beauty in the Showa era, and it is said that the judges at the time were shocked to see her and quickly selected the winner, and the writer Yukio Mishima also praised her as a woman who was unparalleled in both appearance and inside.
After winning the beauty pageant, Yamamoto Fujiko did not decide to enter the film industry, until her sister Kiyoko told her that "women should have jobs in the future", which made her decide to become an actress.
The most famous Fujiwara Norika also debuted in 1992 as a 20-year-old college student from Kobe, who was known as the "fin de siècle super idol" after winning the award.
Masami Nagasawa was the youngest Toho Cinderella, and at the age of 12, she stood out from more than 35,000 people and won the "Toho Cinderella" title in 2000.
This Toho Art Energy will hold the "Toho Cinderella" selection every few years, and also discovered a lot of beauties, Yasuko Sawaguchi, Masami Nagasawa, Moe Kami-Shiraishi, Moe Kami-Shiraishi, Miha Hamabe and others all stood out from the competition and entered the entertainment industry.
There is also the All Japan National Beautiful Girls Pageant, which also aims to cultivate debuting stars, and idol stars such as Aya Ueto, Ryoko Yonekura, and Saki Takei are all discovered in the competition.
Another beauty pageant, Horipro Talent Scout Caravan, is also a testing ground for large-scale star-making, and the winner Satomi Ishihara was presented that year by Kyoko Fukada, who came from the same beauty pageant.
There are a wide variety of beauty pageants covering all ages: from Miss Teen Japan, which is a teenager, to the "National Beauty Witch" contest, which only accepts contestants over 35 years old... In 2019, 52-year-old single mother Kaoru Sakamura won the competition.
However, except for a few special competitions, Japanese beauty pageants seem to have a tendency to pursue too much of a young tooth aesthetic.
In 2011, Masami Nagasawa presented the Toho Cinderella Champion that year. Many people think that the comparison between the two generations of champions is too cruel, and the predecessor Masami Nagasawa still has a crushing advantage in front of the young tooth beauty.
At the 2020 Miss Teen Japan Trials, 13-year-old Shuang Suzuki won the championship, which is still not a god level.
The aesthetic juvenile of the beauty pageant does not distinguish between genders, and the male contestants have also been criticized miserably.
Known as the Ojin Excavator, it has promoted Shinji Takeda, Shingo Katsuyama, Yoshihiko Hakamada, Takashi Kashiwahara, Hideaki Ito, Haruhiko Kato, Tetsuhei Koike, Yuta Hiraoka, Honori Yamamoto, Junhei Mizobata, Shohei Miura, Masaki Sugata and many other tournaments Junon Superboy Contest so far, and the performance in recent years has not been satisfactory.
Like the final winner was 14-year-old Yu Maekawa, who was ridiculed for being "worthless" at his young age.
Another example is the winner of the men's high school handsome contest in previous years, 17-year-old high school sophomore born in Saitama Prefecture, Haruhito Nakano, who won the title of "Japan's first handsome male high school student".
Winner of "Japan's Most Handsome College Student"
Netizens are also not very willing to pay for the selection results, and more poisonous remarks said: Is it that buckteeth are not eligible to be shortlisted? In any case, the Japanese seem to be unable to get out of the beauty pageant circle.
Don't look at the face,
It is a new type of political correctness
Being passionate about beauty pageants and various leaderboards has almost become a very existential thing in the daily life of Japanese people.
Although beauty pageants have long been regarded as an event to objectify women in recent years, the event still attracts tens of thousands of people every year in the Japanese archipelago, and its popularity is so high that people outside Japan cannot understand it.
The Japanese love for beautiful girls and beautiful boys has gained momentum since entering the modern era. In particular, after the introduction of Western beauty pageants to Japan, the beauty pageant industry began to flourish in combination with the tradition of traditional Asian countries that like to select "hundred beauty" and "famous ladies".
Japan's first beauty pageant began at the end of the 19th century, when a commercial company in Asakusa, Tokyo, held a beauty contest for beautiful women by the public in order to attract customers. The company posted photos of young girls and famous geisha at the time on the wall, so that the people present could vote for the winner.
Top 100 beauties in Tokyo
This event soon became imitated throughout Japan, and some media organizations began to hold the "Japan National Beauty Photo Review" competition, and later even expanded to 22 media outlets across the country to hold a nationwide beauty pageant, with 5 beautiful women from each region and the winner selected from 215 people.
Later, March 5 was designated as "Miss Pageant Day" every year, and as a result, Japanese beauty pageant culture began to take root and become firmly established.
In Japanese beauty pageant culture, the most interesting thing is not the single "Miss Japan" tryout, but the imitation and copycat carried out from top to bottom by all classes.
For example, the famous otaku mecca Akihabara held the "Akihabara Moe Queen Beauty Pageant" in 2010, a beauty pageant specially organized for the employees of the maid café, and the organizers believe that there are nearly 2,000 "maid" practitioners near Akihabara, so that otaku can have a platform to select their favorite "maid" clerks and stimulate Akihabara's economy.
Winner of the 8th Moe Queen Beauty Pageant
In order to cater to the needs of men, some organizations also organize the "Otome Academy" selection competition, some models who often appear on the cover of magazines participate in the selection, and form various "classes" against the background of school life, and attach various names that make people think of or combine with current affairs, such as "pure white group", "open foot group", "pure love group", "reading group", "wind discipline group", "Olympic group"...
Various places are also not weak in the pageant. The most famous is the "Prince of the Sea and Princess of the Sea" contest held by Fujisawa City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan to revitalize the local economy. This competition is aimed at young people in the Shonan region of Japan and can be participated by unmarried local men and women over the age of 18.
Beauty pageants and various rankings have also become tools for young people to achieve class transitions. A representative example in Japan is Kei Komuro, a boy who is engaged to Princess Mako of Japan.
Kei Komuro (left) at the time of the award
Kei Komuro's rise to the top stems from the Shonan "Prince of the Sea" beauty contest he participated in when he was in college.
When Kei Komuro participated in this competition, he clearly recognized the opportunities this competition brought him, and in the competition materials, he stated that he wanted to meet more foreigners through this competition, and wanted to participate in diplomacy and other work in the future, and because of this competition, he eventually won the favor of Princess Mako in college and became a real "prince".
The selection itself is also famous for Kei Komuro, who tripled the number of entries for this local beauty pageant that can be attended by both men and women after the engagement of Kei Komuro and Princess Mako, including some middle-class young people who were sent to some private universities in Tokyo at great expense.
Junon Boy artist Junki Totsuka also revealed his experience in an interview. He participated in such competitions similar to artist auditions and male beauty pageants, not of his own will, but by his mother who applied for him without his knowledge.
"Originally, I liked to study cars and so on, and I was not interested in the entertainment industry, but my mother wanted me to go to the competition, and without knowing it, she signed me up, and after that, I heard that she had also helped me apply for models for children's commercials.... Later, my job search didn't go well, and my mother gloated and said, 'This may be destiny, try to be a star,' and I became an actor. ”
Aoyama Gakuin University beauty pageant photo album
For girls, pageants are the main way to become entertainers, television presenters and newscasters, jobs that easily reach the rich and powerful.
In particular, the beauty contests held by universities have been criticized by all parties in recent years, but their popularity has not decreased. As long as it can make the finalist list, it is likely to be seen by major TV station executives, including NHK, and some contestants have even more confided in their hearts, believing that as long as there is a chance of exposure, the worst will be admitted to local TV stations, which is undoubtedly the most efficient and fastest way for competitive contestants to become famous.
However, it is also after entering the 21st century that Japan's various beauty pageants have also been fiercely attacked by many people in society.
The ever-changing swimsuit show, the hidden sexual harassment and discrimination behind it, the commodification of women, etc. have led some people to stay away from such pageants. Previously, it was reported that the beauty contest organized by the University of Tokyo itself requires viewers to pay 5,000 yen (about 300 yuan) before they can have the right to vote.
There are also Japanese media that have exposed the sexual harassment behind the beauty pageant stage. During the selection stage of a college beauty pageant, a contestant was asked by the judges: "How many boys have you slept with?" If you don't want to answer, you can also talk about your height", the contestant replied "160" to this, and the judges laughed: "Well, I don't know which answer the question".
Under such pressure, many college beauty pageants have cancelled the bikini link, and the purpose of the competition is to increase the contribution of the beauty contest to society, and pay more attention to whether the contestants participate in various volunteer activities, and whether the champions represent more diversity in their locations.
But the beauty contest still shows no sign of stopping, and some people think that perhaps in the matter of beauty and ugliness, through the change of the beauty contest itself, the Japanese have slowly established their own ideas, incorporating factors other than appearance into the aesthetic range, perhaps under this trend, the future Japanese beauty pageant may gradually disappear.
#Current affairs hot headlines ##Breaking news##Wonderful pen flower creation challenge##Overseas Author Week Challenge##Share your today's impressions##分享我的2023##